=^.^ 



UNITED STATES OP AMEKICA. 



. '^ ^ 



■ 1 f •♦ 



"FORBID THEM NOT:" 



OR 

THE HINDRANCES, 

WHICH 

PREVENT LITTLE CHILDREN 

f 

FROM 

COMING TO CHRIST 



S. E. D-WIGHT. 



NEW.YORK : 

PUBLISHED BYE. FRENCH, 

146 NASSAU STREET. 

1838. ■^ 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 
1838, by S. E. Dwight, in the Clerk's Office of the Dis- 
trict Court of the United States for the Southern District 
of New- York. 



^ 



NEW-YORK : 

SCATCH£RD AMD ADAMS, PRINTERS, 

KO. 38 GOLD STREET. 



*^ FORBID THEM NOT." 



The incident, which gave rise to these words 
of our Lord, was the following. On his return 
from Bethabara beyond the Jordan to Jerusa- 
lem, while he was conversing with some of the 
Pharisees on the lawfulness of Divorces, certain 
individuals, probably the parents themselves — 
so extensively was he now regarded as a pro- 
phet of God, and as a man of great benevolence 
and eminent holiness — brought little children 
and infants* to him, that he should lay his 
hands upon them and pray. His disciples, 
regarding their coming as a troublesome intru- 
sion, and viewing it as beneath the dignity of 
so great a prophet to concern himself about 
little children, who were obviously incapable 
of receiving his instructions, rebuked those who 
* St, Luke calls thera /?p£0/7, lahes. 



brought them. Jesus perceiving it, was " great- 
ly displeased," and said unto them, " Suffer lit- 
tle children to come unto me, and forbid them 
not ; for of such is the kingdom of Heaven." 
Having said this, he caused the children to be 
brought to him, took them in his arms, laid his 
hands upon them and blessed them, and then 
went on his way. 

Various explanations have been given of this 
transaction. Some have supposed that the 
children were sick,, and that their parents 
brought them to our Lord to be healed. This, 
however, we cannot admit ; because there is no 
intimation in either of the three evangelists, 
who record the incident, that such was the fact ; 
and because, if it had been the fact, the disci- 
ples would not have shown themselves so de- 
void of humanity, or so regardless of their Mas- 
ter's honor, as either to prevent them from 
being healed, or him of an opportunity of 
working a miracle in their behalf. 

Others have imagined that the children were 



brought to Christ to be baptized. This expla- 
nation appears equally unsatisfactory ; for, 1 . 
Christian baptism was not then instituted ; 2 . 
Had this been the design of the parents, the 
disciples would not have rebuked them ; 3. 
. The language of Christ is general, and, on this 
supposition, admits all children to baptism ; 4 . 
Christ did not, in fact, baptize the children ; 
nor did the parents request him to do it ; nor 
is there a syllable said about baptism or water 
in the whole passage ; and of course, even if 
we had no means of determining the object of 
the parents, we could barely conjecture that it 
was the baptism of their children. 

But, in settling this point, we are not left to 
mere conjecture. The real design of the pa- 
rents is easily ascertained. The Hebrews 
were persuaded that the prayers of men dis- 
tinguished for their piety, especially of pro- 
phets, had very great influence in procuring 
blessings on those whom they commended to 

God ; and were accustomed therefore to present 
1* 



6 

their children to such persons, to receive their 
blessing. Of this we have one example in 
the presentation of Ephraim and Manasseh to 
Jacob ; and another, in that of the infant Jesus 
to Simeon, in the temple. In such cases, it 
was customary for the person, whose prayers 
were requested, to lay his hands on the indi- 
vidual thus presented, and in that posture to 
invoke the Divine blessing. That this was the 
specific design of these parents, we know from 
the express language of Matthew, " And they 
brought young children to him, that he should 
lay his hands upon them, and pray. ^^ Christ un- 
derstood this to be their design ; for he caused 
the children to be brought to him, took them in 
his arms, laid his hands upon them, and blessed 
them. 

The kindness and condescension of the Sa- 
viour, and the love here manifested by him to 
little children, might easily furnish most use- 
ful and delightful themes for our meditation. 
But we have another design in view ; and the 



language of one of the directions, which, on 
this occasion, he gave to his disciples, natu- 
rally leads us to dwell on the Hindrances which 
prevent little children from coming to Christ. 

In entering on this, as the subject of the fol- 
lowing reflections, it can scarcely escape our 
notice, that the persons who, on this occasion, 
forbad little children to be brought to Christ, 
are not commonly those, who prevent their 
coming to him. In the case here recited, the 
parents were actually bringing their little chil- 
dren to him ; and the disciples, ignorant alike 
of his feelings towards such children, and of 
their capacity to receive his blessing, forbad 
them to come. Usually, however, when such 
children are forbidden to come to Christ, it is 
their parents who forbid them. This fact, as 
obviously true, as it is at once solemn and af- 
footing, will not therefore be lost sight of in 
the following pages ; in which we propose to 
answer two inquiries : 



8 

When Parents may be said to forbid their 
children to come to Christ : 

Why they should suffer them to come, and 
should not forbid them. 

The obvious General answer to the first in- 
quiry — When may Parents be said to forbid 
their little children to come to Christ and re- 
ceive his blessing, is this : — Whenever, by an 
evil example, they lead them away from Christ ; 
or neglect the performance of those duties 
which alone will secure his blessing. But this 
answer is obviously too general for the pur- 
pose either of instruction or impression. We 
must therefore descend to particulars. Pa- 
rents may be said to forbid their little children 
to come to Christ, 

1. When they do not bring them to him in 
faith to receive his blessing. 

When Christ was on earth, and any indi- 
vidual came to him to obtain any temporal 
blessing for himself or for another, his language 
to every such petitioner was--" According to 



9 

thy faithy so be it unto thee." If he had faith, 
he granted him the blessing which he sought. 
If he had not, he withheld it. The faith here 
referred to was a settled, unwavering conviction 
in the mind of the petitioner, that Christ was, 
at the time of making the request, both able and 
willing to give him the blessing sought. Thus, 
when the father of the demoniac said to him, 
" If thou canst do any thing, have compassion 
on us and help us ;" he replied, " If thou canst 
believe, all things are possible to him that be- 
lievethe" To the Syro-Phoenician woman, who 
discovered surprising perseverance in intreat- 
ing him to heal her daughter, he said — " O 
woman, great is thy faith." Thus, also, he in- 
quired of the two blind men near Jericho, who 
besought him to open their eyes, " Believe ye 
that I am able to do this ?" and, as he opened 
their eyes, he said unto them, " According to 
jour faith, so be it unto you." 

Christ acted on the same principle in the 
case here recited. The parents in this case, 



10 

though they did not know him in his Divine 
character, had yet strong confidence in his be- 
nevolence, and in his power with God ; and 
therefore, notwithstanding the prohibition of 
the Apostles, did not doubt, if their children 
were brought to Christ, that they would receive 
his blessing. Accordingly, the blessing was 
bestowed on them by Christ, and was actually re- 
ceived by the children. One of the children thus 
presented, as we learn from Ecclesiastical His- 
tory, was Ignatius, afterwards the celebrated 
bishop of Antioch, a man of pre-eminent piety. 

The same principle now regulates the bes* 
towment of blessings on ourselves and on our 
children. In the Gospel, Christ announces 
himself to parents as able and willing to save 
their little children ; and in language adapted , 
if language can be, to prompt the highest ef- 
forts, which faith, blended with affection, can 
put forth, says to them, " Suffer your little chil- 
dren to come unto me, and forbid them not ; for 
of such is the kingdom of heaven." Many 



11 

parents, however, never go to Christ as their 
Saviour, and never ask him to save themselves. 
It is not surprising, therefore, that they never 
carry their children to Christ. Maiiy other 
parents perform the external part of the duty, 
while they leave the internal spiritual part of 
it wholly unperformed. They offer them in 
baptism ; they pray for them and with them 
daily ; and at times, perhaps, with unusual 
feeling they attempt to commend them to God, 
Yet they never do these things in faith. Seat- 
ed on his throne of mercy, Christ reaches out 
his hand to them, tells them that it contains a 
title to heaven for their children, and bids them 
come and take it. They listen for awhile, 
with some degree of attention and of feeling, 
to the gracious offer ; but they are engrossed 
by business, or by the desire of amassing a for- 
tune, or of gaining distinction, or by the daily 
cares of the family, or by the calls of amuse- 
ment or pleasure ; or they are conscious of liv- 
ing in unrepented sin. The consequence is, 



12 

that they do not believe, either that the soul of 
a child is of so much value as Christ has re- 
presented ; or that he is willing to bestow upon 
them thisi blessing. His language to them is, 
" According to your faiths so be it unto you ;" 
and they never receive the blessing for their 
children. 

Other parents, still, exercise a degree of faith, 
but not that to which I refer. It is a kind of 
reversionary faith, but not a present, instant^ 
immediate faith. They pray for their little 
children, fully believing that Christ has the 
blessing of salvation in store for them, and that 
they will assuredly receive it, at some future 
period ; when they are grown up, or before 
they die. But they do not realize that the sah 
vation of each child is a separate concern, to be 
settled between their own souls and God in 
the infancy of that child. Their hearts never 
rise, in any given interview with Christ, to the 
exercise of that full and joyful confidence, in 
which, beholding him as a present Saviour, they 



13 

distinctly say to him, "Lord, this child is 
thine ; and thou hast put it with me, to train it 
up for heaven. Though I cannot save it, thou art 
able, and thou art willing to save it. Thou 
hast said to me, * Suffer this little child to come 
unto me and forbid it not ;' and in saying 
this thou hast assured me, that if I bring this 
little child unto thee, thou wilt certainly receive 
it. In a hearty compliance with this thy gra- 
cious invitation, and with a firm reliance on 
this thy faithful promise, I now bring this little 
child unto thee, and I here lay its soul in thine 
arms. I ask the blessing for it at this early 
age : — even now, while I am speaking to thee. 
I p^c-^d thy covenant : Thou wilt, nay, even now 
thou dost, receive it as thy child : — thou wilt, 
nay, even now thou dost, give it eternal life ; 
and I shall see a work of grace begun in it in 
the very dawn of its being. Lord ! this is thy 
child, and it shall be thine forever." 

But some Christian parent, looking at his 
own unsanctified children, will here ask, What ! 



14 

do you then mean to charge on Christian pa- 
rents the perdition of their children ? This 
question I will answer, by asking several others. 
Was the Saviour, in whom you trust, My friend, 
of such an unfeeling character, while he was 
on earth, that, when parents were bringing their 
little children to him, he would forbid them to 
come ; or that, when they had found their way 
into his presence, and had laid their children 
in his arms, he would let them drop and be 
dashed to pieces ? Is the Saviour in whom you 
trust of such an unfeeling character now, 
while he sitteth on the throne,^ that when, 
in obedience to his express command, you bring 
the immortal soul of your infant child, and lay 
it in his arms, he will withdraw them from un- 
der it, and let it drop into hell ? In the Great 
day, if you see either of your children on the 
left hand, and you are called upon to answer 
the question, Why he 'perished 1 do you expect 
to rise up before the Assembled universe, and 
say to the Judge, " Lord, I offered that child 



15 

to thee in faith, because thou saidst, < Suffer 
little children to come unto me, and forbid them 
not ;' but thou wouldst not accept the offer." 
Will your lost child, as he stands upon his own 
trial, then be able to say, '' My father and my 
mother, when I was an infant, came to the 
mercy-seat, full of faith and of the Holy Ghost ! 
and while they saw the Saviour face to face, 
they gave me up to him as his child, and laid me 
in his arms ; and though he told them to do this, 
yet he withdrew his hands, and I, therefore, am 
ruined forever ! 

The story of Hannah was recorded for the 
instruction of parents, and especially of moth- 
ers, on this subject. Before the birth of Sa- 
muel, God and she were bound in mutual cove- 
nant : she, that she would give him up to God ; 
and God, that he would receive him as his son. 
What she did before the child was weaned, the 
sacred historian does not inform us ; and he 
needed not to inform us ; for the heart of every 
one who reads the story, instinctively tells him, 



16 

that at the time of its birth, as well every fol- 
lowing day until she stood with it at the door 
of the tabernacle, she gave it up, in the strong 
yearnings of maternal faith, to that Great 
Being of whom she had asked it. As soon as 
the child was weaned, as soon as she was able 
to go up from Mount Ephraim to Shiloh, this co- 
venant was publicly renewed. There was not a 
doubt in the mind of Hannah, that God would 
take Samuel if she gave him up. To have che- 
rished such a doubt for a moment, would have 
seemed to her the extreme of impiety. And no 
mother ever felt and acted as Hannah did, who 
did not see the same result. 

But we have another story, not in the Bible, 
yet placed on record in the providence of God, 
of a Woman, not in the Christian church, nor in 
a Christian country, but educated as a Heathen, 
and who had never heard of the name of Je- 
hovah, or of his Son Jesus Christ ; whose con. 
duct, dictated by the light of nature, assisted, 
we doubt not, by the Spirit of God, was an ex- 



17 

act counterpart to that of Hannah, and presents 
the same truth in a manner not less striking 
and impressive. It is the story of Nunnoh^^ the 
wife of Hannit, an Indian sachem of Martha's 
Vineyard. We shall give it in the words of 
Mayhew in his Indian Converts. 

" There is one thing to be said of Nunnoh, 
which can scarcely be said of any other of our 
Indians, who had lived a considerable part of 
their lives before the word of God was ever 
preached to them, viz : That by a due improve- 
ment of the light of Nature, assisted by the 
Spirit of God, she attained to so right a concep- 
tion of the only true and living God, and her 
own relation to and dependence on him, as that 
she did worship and call on him, and, as it 
seemeth, obtained a gracious answer to her 
prayers. 

" Hannit and his wife having buried their 

* Her full name was WuU%7inunnohkomJ{o oh, denoting 
a humble or loioly woman. His was Pamchannit. The 
Indians usually abbreviated their names. 
2* 



18 

first five children successively, every one of 
them within ten days of their birth, notwith- 
standing all their use of the Pawwaws and 
medicines to preserve them, had a sixth (a son) 
born to them* a few years before the English 
first settled on Martha's Vineyard. 

" The mother being then greatly distressed 
with fear that she should lose this child as she 
had done the former, and utterly despairing of 
any help from such means as had been formerly 
tried without any success ; as soon as she was 
able, which was within ten days after his birth, 
took him up with a sorrowful heart, and went 
out into the field that she might there weep 
out her sorrow. But while she was thus musing 
on the insufiiciency of human help, she found 
it powerfully suggested to her mind that there 
is an Almighty God, who is to be prayed to ; 
that this God hath created all things that we 
see ; and that the God who had given being to 

♦ In 1638. 



19 

herself and all other people, and had given her 
child to her, was able to preserve and continue 
his life. 

•' On this she resolved that she would seek to 
God for that mercy ; which she did accord- 
ingly. The issue was, that her child lived ; 
and her faith (such as it was) in Him, who had 
thus answered her prayer, was wonderfully 
strengthened ; and the consideration of God^s 
goodness, herein manifested to her, caused her 
to dedicate this son of her's to the service of 
that God who had thus preserved his life. Of 
her doing this she early informed him, and did, 
as far as she could, educate him accordingly. 
But this she did yet more vigorously, and to 
better purpose, prosecute, when, a few years 
after, she was, by the preaching of the Gospel, 
instructed in the way of salvation by a Redeem- 
er, and by the grace of God enabled truly to 
believe in Jesus Christ our only Saviour. 

" This discovery of the true God to her, be- 
fore she was favoured with the light of the 



20 

Gospel, did very wonderfully prepare her for a 
ready reception of it, when the providence of 
God brought it to her, a few years after. 
Hence it was thought that as soon as Nunnoh 
heard of the devotions of the English, who set- 
tled on the east end of Martha's Vineyard, in 
the year 1642, at a considerable distance from 
where she lived,* she presently alleged that 
they were worshippers of the same God to 
whom she had prayed in the field, and she soon 
after found that she was not mistaken, when Mr. 
Mayhewf began to preach the word of God to 
the Indians on the island ; and when she heard 
the Gospel preached, she accordingly easily 
believed it and embraced it." 

Her son, Japheth Hannit (to abridge the re- 
mainder of the narrative) made a public profes- 
sion of religion soon after the establshment of 
a Christian church in the island, proved an 
able, devoted, and eminently pious minister, 

* At the place now called Chilmark. 
t The father of the writer. 



21 

and died in July, 1712, in the triumph of the 
Christian faith. 

It seems to have been generally taken for 
granted by Christian mothers, that the case of 
Hannah was so remarkable, her piety so singu- 
lar, and her communion with God so near and 
intimate, that the faith which she manifested in 
offering up Samuel was too elevated for their 
imitation; and that God's acceptance of her of- 
fering furnishes no assurance to them of similar 
success. It seems, therefore, to have been one 
important design of Divine Providence, in pre- 
serving the story of this Indian woman, wholly 
to remove the influence of this objection, and 
to furnish an example which plainly might be 
imitated by every Christian mother. Nunnoh^ 
while she and her countrymen were all hea- 
thens, four years before the English visited the 
island, was led by her faith in that Almighty 
God, whom the light of nature only had re- 
vealed to her, and whom she knew only as the 
Creator and Preserver of all things, to offer 



22 

her new-born child to him in a covenant 
of peace, in the same manner as Hannah 
offered Samuel ; and to promise that she would 
train him up for his service — a promise which 
she most faithfully fulfilled. Christian moth- 
ers ! you, who know the Father and the Son 
Jesus Christ, who have the Spirit and the 
Water and the Blood, and who hear the voice 
of Him who died for them, saying to you, " Suf- 
fer your little children to come unto me, and 
forbid them not ;" while you behold Nunnoh, 
in the midst of a dim and uncertain twilight, 
drawn to the mercy-seat by the goodness of 
God in preserving her new-born child, and there 
giving it away to him in covenant faithfulness ; 
will you, under the noon-day light of the 
Sun of Righteousness, resist that far greater 
goodness, that " love which passeth' know- 
ledge," — and forbid your children to come to 
Christ, and receive his blessing ? 

2. When they do not subdue them in early life. 
The single point in controversy between 



23 

every child and its parents, as well as between 
every child and4jrod, is this — Whose Will shall 
he done. Unless the child wishes the will of 
his parents to be done, he will, as far as he 
dares, rebel against their authority ; and 
when he wishes the will of God to be done, 
he is a Christian. To bring his will in sub- 
jection to that of his parents in the beginning 
of life, is a duty often and most solemnly en- 
joined on them by God ; and this, not chiefly 
because he will thus become an obedient and 
dutiful child ; but for the far more important 
reason, that submission to the will of his pa- 
rents is an indispensable, and the most import- 
ant step to prepare him for submission to the 
will of God. 

The question. Whether the will of the child or 
that of the parents shall yield ; becomes aprac^ 
tical one, very early and very often. The first 
time, as well as every subsequent time, when 
the child does what is wrong, this question is 
brought up for a direct decision. The parents 



24 

always decide this question for themselves and 
for the child. As they have the superior un- 
derstanding and knowledge and strength, and 
have also the right on their side, they obviously 
have authority ; and can maintain or surrender 
it as they please. On the part of the child, the 
question whether he will obey or resist, is , at 
first, simply a matter of calculation and expe- 
diency — a question of mere loss and gain. 
This question is usually settled, and often set- 
tled finally, before the child is one year old. 
The first instance of crying from temper and 
not from pain, the first example of obstinacy, 
or passion, or perverseness, as the child lies in 
its mother's lap, presents the best and easiest 
opportunity of deciding it. If such exhibition 
is immediately followed by the appropriate 
manifestation of displeasure on the part of the 
parent, accompanied by a slight infliction of 
bodily suffering, proportioned, of course, to the 
tender and helpless frame of the child, but con- 
tinued until the wrong-doing is relinquished ; 



25 

the child begins to learn a most important les- 
son — the necessity of submission and obedi- 
ence. If these are reiterated as often as the 
wrong-doing is repeated, the child, discovering 
that the ill-conduct is uniformly attended with 
loss, takes care to avoid it ; and thus forms the 
, habit of subjecting his own will to that of his 
mother. If no such manifestation and inflic- 
tion follow, the child discovers that he may do 
wrong with impunity ; and if this lesson is of- 
ten repeated, he forms the habit of disobedience 
and rebellion. Before the end of the first year, 
the child has discovered, I suspect, in all cases, 
by the result of trials of almost daily occur- 
rence, either that it is best to submit to his 
parents' authority, because he cannot carry 
his point ; or that it is best to persevere in his 
opposition, because he can carry it, Unhap- 
pily, the latter of these two lessons is the one 
most commonly taught by parents and learned 
by children. From indifference to the ultimate 
welfare of the child, from false tenderness, 



26 

from indolence, from erroneous views of the 
importance of the subject, and from habit, 
the parents daily inculcate this lesson, and 
the child learns it practically and with all 
his heart ; until his habits of insubmission 
and disobedience are formed and rivetted. As 
the consequence of this, in very many families 
to say the least, whenever the will of the pa- 
rent and that of the child clash, the will of the 
child, usually and as a thing of course, — except 
now and then, in an affair of property or of 
life or limb, — prevails, and that of the parent 
yields. The child maintains, indeed, a seeming 
decency of respect towards his parents, as far 
as he judges it to be absolutely necessary ; but 
goes on, from day to day, doing in fact just 
as he pleases ; except perhaps, that, when 
his perverseness becomes insufferable, the pa- 
rent, in the violence of passion, beats him into 
sullenness and silence, until the child has be- 
come too old to be beaten or subdued. This 
is the actual state of many Christian families. 



27 

When the task of subduing the will of a child 
is begun thus early, and is wisely and faithfully 
pursued, it is a very easy task. All that is 
required on the part of the parent is, to meet 
every exhibition of disobedience and stubborn- 
ness on the part of the child with firmness, and 
yet with affection and gentleness, until the will 
of the child is brought into submission. Where 
this is conscientiously done, rare is the in- 
stance — so rare, indeed, that probably none 
such can be met with, — in which frequent or 
severe punishment is found to be necessary. 
In every such case, submission becomes a part 
of the child's character from the beginning ; 
obedience is his daily habit, the instinctive 
spontaneous acting of his heart ; and the will 
of his parents is his daily rule of action. 

*' The next thing I shall mention as neces- 
sary in order to the education of children," 
says Witherspoon, " is to establish as soon as 
possible, an entire and absolute authority over 
them. I would have it early, that it may be 



28 

absolute, and absolute that it may not be se- 
vere. If parents are too long in beginning to 
exert their authority, they will find the task 
very difficult. Children habituated to indul- 
gence for a few of their first years, are exceed- 
ingly impatient of restraint, and if they happen 
to be of stiff or obstinate tempers, can hardly 
be brought to an entire, or at least to a quiet 
and absolute submission ; whereas, if they are 
taken in time, there is hardly any temper but 
what may be made to yield, and by early habit 
the subjection becomes easy to themselves. 

*' The more complete and uniform a parent's 
authority is, the offences will be more rare, 
punishment will be less needed, and the more 
gentle kind of correction will be abundantly 
sufficient. We see every where about us abun- 
dant examples of this. A parent, who has 
once obtained, and knows how to preserve au- 
thority, will do more by a look of displeasure, 
than another by the most passionate words, and 
even blows. It holds universally in ' families 



29 

and schools, that those who keep the strictest 
discipline, give the fewest strokes. The reason 
is plain. Children, by foolish indulgence, be- 
come often so froward and petulant in their 
tempers, that they provoke their easy parents 
past all endurance ; so that they are obHged, if 
not to strike, at least to scold them, in a man- 
ner as little to their own credit as their chil- 
dren's profit. 

" I would therefore recommend to every pa- 
rent to begin the establishment of authority 
much more early than is commonly supposed 
to be possible : that is to say, from about the 
age of nine months. You will perhaps smile 
at this ; but I do assure you from experience, 
that by setting about it with prudence, delibera- 
tion, and attention, it may be in a manner com- 
pleted by the age of twelve or fourteen months. 
Do not imagine I mean to bid you use the rod at 
that age ; on the contrary, I mean to prevent the 
use of it, in a great measure, and to point out 

a way by which children of sweet and easy 
3* 



30 

tempers, may be brought to such a habit of 
compliance, as never to need correction at all ; 
and whatever their temper may be, so much 
less of this is sufficient, than upon any other 
supposition."* 

I once got into a stage-coach, in which I 
found among the passengers a father and 
mother, with their child of nine months old 
carried by a female servant. After riding 
some ten or a dozen miles, the child began to 
cry. The father, turning round, spoke to it in 
a low but determined tone of voice, and com- 
manded it to hush. The child immediately 
stopped crying. After riding some ten miles 
further, the child began to cry a second time. 
The father spoke to it again in the same man- 
ner, but the child continued its crying. The 
father, then turning round, spoke to the child 
anew, and immediately struck his fore-finger 
with some little force and severity upon the 
child's arm. The child, looking steadfastly at 
♦ Witherspoon's 2d letter on Education. 



31 

his father's face, and apparently understanding 
the expression of it, instantly stopped crying, 
and was perfectly quiet and sweet-tempered to 
the end of the journey. 

I then observed to the father, " I perceive, 
Sir, that you begin your family-government at 
a much earlier period than is common," ** I 
do," he replied ; " and the consequence is, that 
I have hardly any need of government in my 
family. I always begin with my children, ib the 
way you have just now seen, by the time they 
are six months old. If a child cries from sick- 
ness or pain, I let him cry if I cannot soothe 
him ; but if from petulance or temper, I first 
speak to him in a decided tone, and, if that 
does not quiet him, speak again, and kt the 
same time lay the weight of my fore-finger 
upon his arm with so much force as to inflict 
some degree of pain. We have now five chil- 
dren. 1 have never punished either of them 
further than by laying my finger on his arm ; 
nor that, after two years of age. And no one 



32 

of them has ever disobeyed his mother or me, 
or uttered a disrespectful word to either of us, 
or quarrelled with the other children in his 
life. Neither of them can remember that he 
has ever been punished at all, or appears to 
know that there is any other way of acting, 
but in accordance with our wishes. The con- 
sequence is, that if you were to come to the 
house, you would not discover that we had any 
family government, or that there was any need 
of it. The children always seem to do just as 
they please, because they always please to do 
just what we wish to have them do." 

" Your system, Sir," said 1, "is undoubtedly 
the right one, and the only right one, and has 
been attended with admirable success. Still, I 
cannot but suspect that you were very fortu- 
nate in your children. They must have been, 
I think, more amiable and sweet-tempered than 
the common run of children." 

** Not at all," said he ; they are no better 
than nei<;hbour's fare. All the difference in 



83 

their character, from that of many other child, 
ren, is owing to the fact, that we have both made 
it a standing rule from the beginning, when- 
ever they set up their own wills in any way in 
opposition to ours, to meet them at once on 
that precise point ; and never to give over 
until the point was carried, and their wills 
brought into entire subjection to ours. By 
commencing thus early, it has cost us no trou. 
ble ; the habit of obeying us has been formed 
from the beginning ; they know of no other 
way, and do it as a thing of course." 

The father wa^ not a religious man ; but, in 
the exercise of a sound common sense, had 
adopted and pursued a course of family disci- 
pline, which had rendered his children in an 
uncommon degree amiable, obedient and duti- 
ful ; and which, had it been preceded by a full 
and cordial devotion of them to Christ, and ac- 
companied by the faithful communication of 
evangelical instruction, would have rendered 



34 

them truly excellent and lovely in the sight of 
the Most High. 

When the child is thus brought into submis- 
sion and obedience to the law of his parents, 
his will — that stubborn thing, the cause of all 
insubordination and rebellion — is subdued ; and 
his heart is prepared for the grace of God. 
Such examples, however, in this country and 
in this age to say the least, are exceedingly 
uncommon ; and the only reason to be given for 
this fact is the painful one, that it is just as 
uncommon to find parents, who are thus strict 
and faithful in the early government of their 
children. In my own view, one of the chief 
reasons why so many children of the present 
generation, and among them so many children 
of Christian parents, will be finally lost, is — 
that they do not subdue them in early life. 

I ought here to add, that the same state of 
mind, which will enable and incline a parent to 
offer a child to Christ in faith, will also enable 
and incline him to subdue it ; and that the parent 



35 

may easily determine, whether the offering 
was made in faith, by determining whether the 
child has been subdued. 

3. When they do not early and faithfully in- 
struct them. 

Children can learn much more, much earlier, 
and much faster, than is generally thought. I 
myself once saw a little child, not more than 
just three years of age, under such deep and dis- 
tressing convictions of sin, as to cry out in- 
stinctively in prayer to God for pardon. As I 
entered the room where he was, one sabbath 
evening, I found him sitting alone by the fire ; 
and said, as I sat down by him, 

" Ah, is that you, Edward ;* where are all the 
family?" 

<* They are all gone to church, but Mary ; 
and she is gone out." 

" And are you sitting here all alone by the 
fire ?" 

" Yes, sir." 

* The real names are concealed. 



86 

" No, my dear boy, there was some one here 
before I came in." 

" I know it : it was Mary." 

" But, after Mary went out, and before I 
came in, you were not alone. There was some 
one here with you in the room, who was look- 
ing right at you, as you sat here by the fire ; 
and he was nearer to you than I am now." 

" Who was it?" said he, a little startled, as 
he moved up close to me, and leaned over into 
my lap, 

" If you want to know, I will tell you. — , 
It was the Great God : who made you — who 
keeps you and your mother and your father 
alive : and who gives you the bread you eat, 
and the clothes you wear, and the fire you are 
sitting by, and every thing you have. He has 
taken care of you now for three long years, 
ever since you were born ; and he has been with 
you all day to-day, and every day ; and always 
has been doing you good. And he has been wait- 
ing every day, to see if you would pray to him 



37 

and thank him for his goodness. And yet, my 
dear boy, I am afraid that God knows that you 
never thanked him, nor prayed to him, in all 
your life." 

" I did : I said * Now I lay me,' last night ; and 
* Our Father which art in heaven,' this morning." 

" ButN;hat isn't praying. 1 know you said 
over, * Now I lay me,' and * Our Father ;' be- 
cause your mother told you to, and you were 
afraid God would be angry if you did not. But 
you did not do it, because it made you happy 
to think that the Great God, who is so good to 
you, was with you there in the bed-room ; and 
because you loved to talk with him, and to tell 
him how good he has been to you, and to 
thank him for all his goodness. And now, to- 
day, though it is Sunday, God has been with 
you all day long ; and yet you have not once 
thanked him for his goodness ; nor pray, 
ed to him ; nor been willing to think of him ; 
nor to remember that God was here : and the 

Great God knows it. And now, while I am 
4 



38 

talking to you about all his goodness to you, 
and you know that God is here looking right 
down upon your heart, he sees and knows that 
you don't want to think of him, and that you are 
not willing to pray to him. O, my dear boy, 
how wicked this is ; and what does the Great 
God think of it ; and what will he do with 
such a little boy, who won't love him, and won't 
obey him ?" 

The child was now deeply affected, and, be- 
ginning to weep, asked me, if I thought the 
Great God would be willing to forgive him. I 
told him in reply, that the Lord Jesus Christ, 
the Son of God, came down from heaven, and 
was born of the Virgin Mary, in order that he 
might die for sinners ; that he suffered and died 
for him, on purpose that God might be able to 
forgive him ; and that God had told him, in the 
Bible, that if he would be truly sorry for his 
sins, and forsake them, and love God, and love 
to pray to him and obey him, and do what was 
right and good, God would for Christ's sake 



39 

forgive him, and be a Father to him, and when 
he died would take him up to heaven. 

He now sat still in deep meditation for 
some minutes, leaning his head upon his hand, 
and resting his elbow in my lap ; until, appear- 
ing to summon his whole strength of thought 
and feeling for the effort, he said in a low voice, 
with deep emotion, " O Great God ! forgive 
my sins for Christ's sake." 

After this, nothing was said for some mi- 
nutes ; when, with great tenderness of feeling, 
he asked me, if I thought that God had heard 
him and forgiven him. I told him, that when he 
was praying, God was looking upon his heart ; 
and that if, at that time he was grieved for his 
sins, and loved Christ, and believed that God 
was willing for Christ's sake to forgive him, 
he had certainly forgiven him ; because he pro- 
mised to do so in the Bible, and he always 
kept his promise. He said he thought he did ; 
and then asked me if I was willing to pray for 
him. I told him that, while I prayed, he must 



40 

pray too in his heart, and must ask of God the 
same things which he heard me ask for ; and 
then, speaking with great slowness and deUbe- 
ratlon, and presenting the prayer chiefly in the 
first person^ that he might offer it as his own,* 
I endeavoured to lead his mind to confession 
and humiliation, to acknowledge the love of 
Christ in dying for him, the fulness of his 
atonement, and the willingness of God to 
forgive him, and to love him, for Christ's sake. 
After this I told him that, if God had forgiven 
him, and he really loved the Lord Jesus Christ, 
he would love to think of God, and to pray to 
him, and to keep the Sabbath holy, and to 
obey his parents, and to do every thing that 
was right. The impression made by this in- 

* As thus : — '' O God ! enable this dear little boy now 
to say unto thee for himself, " Thou knowest, O God ! * 
that I am a great sinner. I have not loved thee, nor 
been willing to think of thee, nor to thank thee for all 
thy goodness to me, nor to pray to thee. O Qod ! I 
never really prayed to thee in all my life," &c. 



41 

terview was certainly deep, and I have always 
believed was abiding and permanent. 

The story of Phcebe Bartlett, a child of 
the same age, who, after deep and distressing 
convictions of sin continued for several months, 
became a devout and humble Christian, and 
proved the genuineness of her conversion by a 
long life of consistent piety ; was intended by 
President Edwards, as a memorial to parents 
of that and all succeeding generations, to teach 
them the all-important lesson, that little chil- 
dren are capable of learning " all things^ that 
are necessary for life and godliness, ^^ 

A child of common understanding, if taught 
"in the place where prayer is wont to be 
made," with an earnestness and depth of feel- 
ing sufficient to secure his solemn attention, to 
inspire corresponding emotions, and to con- 
vince him that his mother's heart yearns for his 
welfare, while she daily cries to God in prayer 
for him ; may be easily led, in his third year, to 

comprehend and to feel that God is every- 

4* 



42 

where ; that God made him, and preserves 
him, and is always doing him good ; that God 
gave him the Bible ; that the Bible says he is a 
sinner, because he disobeys his parents, and 
does not love God nor obey him, nor love to 
pray to him ; that God is angry with all the 
wicked, and if they do not break off their sins, 
must and will punish them in the world •of 
darkness forever ; that God, in his great mercy 
to sinners, gave his Son to die in their room ; 
that when Christ was dying on the Cross, 
God showed his displeasure against the sins of 
men, as fully as if he had punished them ; that 
nov/ he can forgive them, and offers to do it, if 
they will break off their sins, and love and 
obey God ; that Christ is able and willing to 
save them ; and that Christ is present, and puts 
this question to him, " Will you have me for 
your Saviour ?" In the early piety of other 
little children, he may be advantageously taught 
what it is to repent of sin, and to come to Christ 
for salvation, and thus may easily learn his 



43 

own duty ; and the earnestness, the prayers 
and the tears, of his parent will show him, in a 
manner not to be resisted or forgotten, how pre- 
cious is his soul, and how much its salvation is 
desired. Hei'e, then, is the sum and substance 
of the Gospel. If it is faithfully and regularly 
communicated to the child, hy his parents, at 
this early age ; if, in accordance with the ex- 
press letter of the command, they impart " line 
upon line and precept upon precept, line 
upon line and precept upon precept, here a 
little and there a little ;" his conscience will be 
enlightened, his heart will be prepared for the 
grace of the Holy Spirit ; and the child will be 
afraid to sin against God. I say, " if this in- 
struction is faithfully and regularly communi- 
cated to the child hy his 'parents ;" for, unhap- 
pily, the introduction of Sabbath-schools, while 
it has been the cause of incalculable blessings, 
has, in many Christian families, been followed 
by one dangerous if not fatal consequence. Be- 
fore that event, it was the general practice of 



44 

Christian parents to instruct their children them- 
selves, in their duty to God, and in the way of 
salvation, at the daily offering, and still more fully 
after church on the Sabbath. Since that event, for 
some cause or other, in very many, may I not 
say in most, families, the performance of this 
duty has been practically relinquished by the 
parents, and left to the teachers of the sab- 
bath-school. The duty of thus instructing 
their children from the beginning is enjoined 
by God, as a personal duty, on the 'parents them- 
selves, and can never be lawfully discharged 
by proxy. They may indeed call the sabbath- 
school teacher to their aid, but in no respect to 
diminish the weight or amount of their own 
performance. If they make use of the teacher, 
no matter on what plea, as a substitute, instead of 
an accessary, they do it at their peril. God has 
promised the bestowment of his blessing only on 
the faithful performance of this duty, from the 
beginning, by the parents themselves. And when 
parents do not thus systematically and pray- 



45 

erfuUy communicate this instruction, they for- 
bid their little child to come to Christ. 

It ought here to be remarked, that the same 
state of mind, which will incjuce and enable a 
parent to offer his child to Christ in faith, and 
to bring its will into subjection to his own, will 
likewise incline him to watch for the first 
dawnings of intelligence, that he may thence- 
forward impart to him the knowledge of God 
and of his duty. 

We might here proceed to observe, that 
when parents do not lead a holy and spiritual 
life ; when they do not anxiously watch over 
the souls of their little children, to discover and 
prevent their evil habits ; and when they do 
not effectually guard them from evil communi- 
cations ; they forbid their little children to come 
to Christ. Our wish, however, is, to bring this 
tract within a narrow compass ; and, although 
these topics are of the utmost importance, yet we 
think it sufficient barely to suggest them ; for, 
where the duties already insisted on are faithful- 



46 

ly performed, these will follow of course. We 
proceed therefore to point out, 

Why parents should suffer their little child- 
ren to come to Christ, and not forbid them. 

Allow me to address the considerations, grow- 
ing out of this part of the subject, to parents, 
who have young and rising families. 

1. If, ifly friends, your little children are thus 
brought to Christ, you will be certain of their 
conversion. 

This is a privilege which Christian parents, 
at present, but rarely enjoy. If we look into 
the families of such parents with attention, we 
shall generally find them living with their child- 
ren, through infancy, childhood and youth, 
with only a feeble desire, and a dim and distant 
expectation, — scarcely deserving, when blended, 
to be called a hope, — that some time or other 
they may be converted. It is not very com- 
mon that all the children of one family, when 
they are numerous, are converted ; and when 
they are, the parents are rarely permitted to 



47 

rejoice in the conversion of more than one or 
two, while they are alive. The rest are re- 
newed after they are laid in the grave. 

If you will thus bring your little children to 
Christ, you will be permitted to witness, your- 
selves, the operations of Divine grace on their 
hearts, and to know that their salvation is se- 
cure. In this case, how different will be your 
feelings concerning them, from those of most 
Christian parents, concerning theirs. Instead 
of indulging a distressing anxiety, as you sur- 
vey their future conduct ; you will rejoice that 
a sure foundation is laid for their respectability 
and usefulness. Instead of heaving the sigh of 
anguish, as you dwell on the sad uncertain- 
ty of their allotment ; you will see them already 
entered on the path of life, and walking in it, 
with you, regularly and daily towards heaven. 
If they are sick ; you will find submission con- 
cerning the issue to be an easy and delightful 
task. If they die ; you will give them up with 
joy, in the assured hope, that they are admitted 



48 

to the presence of Christ, and are partakers of 
his blessedness, 

2. You will yourselves be the means of their 
conversion. 

When Christian parents exercise but a hum- 
ble degree of faith, and do but little for the sal- 
vation of their children, they are rarely ho- 
noured by God as the instruments of their con- 
version. As a mark of his displeasure at their 
want of fidelity, if they are renewed at all, this 
honour is conferred on another ; and some faith- 
ful minister or teacher, or some other Christian 
friend, is able to say to them, as Paul said to 
the Corinthians, " In Christ Jesus I have be- 
gotten you, through the Gospel." This ought 
never to be true ; for it is in direct contrariety 
to the gracious appointment of God. Every 
father and mother ought to be the spiritual pa- 
rents of their children. Every child ought to 
know and to rejoice, that to the authors of his 
natural life he also owes the life of his soul. 
This is the very constitution, on which the 



49 

church of Christ is founded : " I will be a God 
to thee, and to thy seed after thee, forever :" "I 
will bless the children for the father's sake." 
If you thus bring your little children to Christ, 
you will have the unspeakable satisfaction of 
knowing, that you have secured for them an in- 
heritance in heaven ; and they of remembering, 
that under God they owe to you the highest 
possible obligations. 

3. You will save them from many evils. 

If you had the promise of God, that they 
should be converted in old age ; still the pros- 
pect before you both would be in many res- 
pects gloomy and distressing. You would re- 
member with painful emotions, that, until 
that period, they would lead a life of sin ; that 
the native aversion of their hearts to holiness 
would continually strengthen ; that their souls 
would become more and more polluted and de- 
based ; that they would daily provoke the Di- 
vine anger, and mar their heavenly inheritance. 

From these incalculable evils, they will be 
5 



50 

saved by your faith, your watchfulness, and 
your love. 

4. You will be able to form their character 
for eternity. 

Most Christian parents occupy themselves 
chiefly in cultivating the minds of their child- 
ren, in moulding their manners, and in forming 
them for activity, usefulness and respectability, 
here. And if they may barely see a work of 
Divine grace begun in them ; it is all tTiey ex- 
pect or ask. The thought of adorning them 
with all the graces of the Spirit, of making 
them accomplished and lovely in the view of 
angels, and of raising them to dignity and use- 
fulness in heaven, seems never to, enter their 
minds. But, if you thus secure their early con- 
version, you will begin to regard them as 
the young children of God, entrusted to you by 
his pecuUar favour, to be formed and educated, 
with vast care, and labour, and love, for the 
blessed society of heaven. You will remember 
that HE, whose name is Holy, claims them as 



51 

his own ; and expects that, under your plastic 
hand, they will be formed into a likeness of 
himself and become holy as He is hol}^ The 
poet, referring only to that culture which pre- 
pares a child for the present world, could say, 
and say with truth, 

" Dehghtful task to rear the tender thought, 
To teach the young idea how to shoot !" 

The culture, to which you will be called, will 
be of a higher and a nobler character. The 
seeds of piety will be planted by you in the 
spring-time, will be quickened by the beams of 
the Sun of righteousness, and will be watered 
and refreshed by the dews of the Spirit. Under 
your daily care, they will grow and flourish 
abundantly, like the willows by the water-cour- 
ses, until they are transplanted into the garden 
of God. There, in a -more genial climate, and in 
a richer soil, they will continue to grow and 
flourish forever. 

5. You will greatly advance your own holi- 
ness and happiness. 



52 

Christian parents sometimes complain, that 
it is a heavy burden, thus laid upon them by 
God, when he requires of them the salvation of 
their children. How different would be the 
views of an angel, if he were called to such an 
offiqe ! If, My friends, you could only be per- 
suaded to rise to that elevation of faith, in 
which you will see the Lord God of Abraham, 
our father, face to face ; in which He will con- 
verse with you daily, as a man converses with 
his friend ; and in which you will know, that 
you actually receive the spiritual blessings 
which you ask for your children ; this state of 
mind itself will be to you a blessing incalcula- 
bly great. To persevere in this state of mind, 
as you must do if you would continue the ade- 
quate performance of this duty, is to sustain. 
the character and to enjoy the happiness of 
heaven, while you are on earth. It is to make 
your calling and election sure, and to lay up 
abundant treasure in heaven. 



53 

6. You will confer incalculable blessings on 
your children. 

You know the many rich and precious pro- 
mises, made to early piety. If you thus bring 
your little children to Christ, their title to these 
blessings you will effectually secure. Suppose 
you certainly knew, that they would be- 
come Christians at the close of life ; still they 
would be mere babes in Christ when they en- 
tered heaven. They would have no opportu- 
nity to cultivate the Christian character, to do 
good to their fellow-men, to serve God and the 
interests of his kingdom, or to enlarge their 
own inheritance. But if you thus effectuate 
their early conversion, and their lives are 
spared ; they will grow to the full stature of 
perfect men in Christ, will spend a long life in 
doing good, will secure the salvation of multi- 
tudes, will gain " the prize of the high calling 
of God in Christ Jesus," and will be destined 
^< to shine forth as the Sun in the kingdom of 

their Father." 

5* 



54 

7. Your mutual enjoyment in eternity. 

" What is our hope, our joy, our crown of 
rejoicing," said Paul to his own spiritual child- 
ren at Thessalonica, " Are not even ye, in the 
presence of the Lord Jesus, at his coming?" 
Again he says, '< We are your rejoicing, even 
as ye also are ours." If you thus secure their 
early conversion, they will be your spiritual 
children. You will love them with an affec- 
tion, as much stronger, purer and nobler than 
mere parental love, as eternal life is a richer 
blessing than the life of the body ; or as the 
happiness of heaven is greater than that of this 
world. They will ever remember, that they 
are indebted to you, not only for their existence, 
but for their immortal happiness and virtue. 
Thus you will be Parents and Children for- 
ever ; and a natural affection, resembling the 
love of the Father to the Son Jesus Christ, 
will make you '* one, even as they are one." 
With such a joy set before you, will you not 
listen to the voice of the Saviour, "Suffer 



55 

your little children to come unto me, and forbid 
them not; for of such is the kingdom of heaven." 

We will not close this little tract, without 
dwelling on some of those practical reflections, 
which it naturally suggests. 

Christian parents, who have new-born child- 
ren, may here learn what ought to be their con- 
duct, when they are about to present them for 
Baptism. 

Parents are bound thus to bring their children 
to Christ every day ; but at their baptism, they 
are called upon to do this in a more public and 
solemn manner. In baptism, if the parent does 
his duty, he surrenders the soul of his child to 
Christ, just as he surrendered his own to him 
when he chose him for his Saviour. In the 
very act, he relinquishes the paramount title to 
the child, acknowledges that of Christ to be 
supreme, and his own subordinate ; gives the 
child to Christ, with a full assurance that he 
receives it as his own ; and covenants that he 
will do what in him lies to prepare it for glory, 



56 

honour and immortality. How great, how so- 
lemn, then, the preparation, necessary to enable 
parents thus to offer a child ! How full of 
faith and of the Holy Ghost ought to be their 
minds, when, thus encouraged by his gracious 
call, they come with their new-born child into 
the immediate vision of the Holy Onk, and, 
pleading the blood of sprinkling, meet Him in 
that covenant of peace, which is to make it 
" an heir of God, and a joint heir with Jesus 
Christ !" What fearful reason is there to be- 
lieve that countless multitudes, to whom the 
seal of the covenant is applied, are never really 
offered to Christ ! How amazing that Chris- 
tian parents, with every thing above them, and 
around them, and within them, to call forth the 
highest exercise of faith and love, often appear 
to realize so feebly the solemnity of this trans- 
action, and take so little pains to prepare 
themselves for it ! 

Reader, have you a new-born child, which 
you are preparing thus to give up to its Father 



57 

and your Father ; beware, then, as you value 
the life of its soul, how you take that covenant 
into your lips. If you are truly a child of God, 
you know what was the state of your mind, 
when you gave yourself away to Him, in a 
covenant well ordered in all things and sure. 
In the very same state of mind, you must con- 
secrate the soul of your child. Before you 
venture to the altar, let conscience testify 
clearly and fully, that you have indeed and in 
truth made this entire surrendry, and that God 
has accepted the offering at your -hands. With- 
out this testimony, go not with your child into 
the holy place ; for, rest assured, there will be 
no God there, to hear or answer. 

Parents are here also called upon to examine 
faithfully, whether they have not forbidden 
their children to come to Christ. 

Did you, in their infancy, thus bring them 
to him in faith ; consciously taking the blessing 
from his hand, and bestowing ^^it on them ? 
Have you thus subdued them ; and are their 



58 

wills brought into subjection to yours ? Have 
you thus early, carefully and faithfully in- 
structed them ? Have you led a holy life in 
their presence ; rooted out their evil habits ; 
guarded them from evil communications ; and 
daily pointed them to heaven as their home? 
If indeed you have thus forbidden them to come 
to Christ, until they have passed the age of 
childhood ; you have laid the foundation for 
deep and bitter repentance. Yet even now, I 
beseech you, " Turn unto the Lord, and rend 
your hearts, and not your garments ; it may be, 
He will turn, and repent, and leave a blessing 
behind him." 

How affecting, too, the exhibition here given 
of the conduct of unbelieving parents ! 

From the language used by Christ, it would 
seem, that little children might and would come 
to him, if their parents did not forbid them. 
He says " Suffer little children to come unto 
me, and forbjd them not ;" but the parents will 
not let them go. They not only never ask 



59 

Christ to save their children, but leave them 
unsubdued and uninstructed, to form and che- 
rish evil habits, to associate with sinful com- 
panions, and to imitate their own ungodly life. 
That immortal soul, more precious than ten 
thousand worlds, which God gave them to 
adorn, and dignify and ennoble, they suffer to 
become deformed, polluted and destroyed. Is 
it then exaggeration in the prophet, when 
he regards the ostrich of the wilderness and 
the monsters of the deep as injured by a com- 
parison with such unfeeling and unfaithful pa- 
rents ? 

We here, also, learn that it is at once the privi- 
lege and the duty, of Christian parents confident- 
ly to expect the conversion of their little children. 

We do not here speak of a vain and presump- 
tuous expectation, resting on no solid founda- 
tion, and having no promise and no evidence 
to support it. Such an expectation proves 
nothing, but the weakness and folly of him who 
indulges it, is a direct and gross affront to God, 



60 

and ends only in disappointment and ruin. 
We speak of a firm, well-founded and immove- 
able, expectation, resting on the unfailing 
promise of Christ to receive little children if 
they are brought to him, and sustained by the 
testimony of a pure and enlightened conscience, 
on the part of the parent, that in deed and in 
truth he has presented his little child to Christ 
in faith to receive his blessing, that he has 
brought its will into subjection to his own, that 
he has early and faithfully instructed it in the 
knowledge of God and its duty, and thus has 
prepared it for a work of grace. Every pa- 
rent, who has this refreshing and joyful testi- 
mony, will not merely be able to look for ; 
he will, he must, he cannot help but, look for ; 
the openings of early piety ; and he will not 
look in vain. 

How moving, how eloquent, in this view, is 
the appeal, which a new-born infant makes to 
' its parents ! 

" My father ! my mother !" it seems to say, 



61 

with an eloquence which no language can rival, 
" He, who died for you, died also for me. He 
offers to be my Saviour as well as yours. 
There is room for me in heaven, as well as for 
you. He bids you carry me to him in faith ; 
and promises, if you will, to bestow on me his 
blessing. He is not indifferent about my sal- 
vation. I can hear him now saying to you, in 
the accents of love, ' Suffer this little child to 
come unto me, and forbid it not : for of 
such is the kingdom of heaven.' Oh ! by your 
mutual covenant, by the love of him who be- 
gat me, and of her who bare me, by the tender- 
ness of Christ, by the faithfulness of God, by 
the miseries of hell, by the joys of heaven, I 
plead with you to take me in your arms and 
to carry me to Jesus for his blessing 1 Oh ! suf- 
fer me to go unto him, and forbid me not !" 

Here, too, we are taught, in a most painful 
and distressing manner, why many of the 
children of officers and members of the Chris- 
tian church come short of salvation. 
6 



62 

It is a frequent remark, that the children of 
officers of the church, are, on an average, more 
irreligious than those of other men. A careful 
examination into the facts, in many parts of 
our country, has, however, proved that the very 
reverse of this is true ; and that the instances 
of irreligion in their families, instead of consti- 
tuting the general rule, are merely occasional, 
and comparatively rare exceptions. The re- 
mark, therefore, is to be accounted for, partly, 
from the fact that every such instance is uni- 
versally known ; but chiefly from malignant 
hostility to the Christian name. Still it is true 
that, on the whole, many such instances exist ; 
and the reason of this fact is here explained. 

As far as my own observation of human life 
has extended, tjiere are four classes of the men 
in question, in this country, to whose families 
this evil is chiefly confined. The first class is 
made up of individuals, who are distinguished 
for nothing but their pleasantness and good 
nature, their love of ease, and their invincible 



63 

habits of bodily and mental indolence ; and 
who, as rational beings, rather seem to ve- 
getate than to live. To parents of this class, 
barely to form the conception of that faith, 
which would raise them to the immediate vision . 
of the Most High, and enable them, with full 
and joyful assurance, to accomplish with him 
by a mutual covenant, the salvation of a child ; 
much more to put forth that faith, and maintain 
it in actual and vigorous exercise ; involves a 
labor both of the mind and heart, which is not 
to be endured. They offer their children for 
baptism, therefore, because they suppose it to 
be commanded, and because other people offer 
theirs. To such parents, the government of 
their children seems a hopeless task, and is 
therefore never begun. All they appear to 
wish or expect of them is, that they behave as 
well as the children of their neighbors. — 
For the same reason they do not instruct their 
children. To teach them when they rise up 
and when they sit down, and when walking by 



64 

the way, to give them line upon line and pre- 
cept upon precept, here a little and there a lit- 
tle, might have been a duty in an earlier and 
more vigorous age of the world, but now in- 
volves a toil to which human nature is not 
equal. When both parents are of this charac- 
ter, un) ;ss God graciously interposes, the child- 
ren grow up of course for ruin. 

The second class comprises individuals who 
'are chiefly characterised for their covetousness. 
If residing in the country, they usually become 
farmers, and resolve to live on the produce of 
their land, and lay up at least the amount of 
their stated income. If in a large town, by 
avoiding all the expense of Christian hospitality, 
and almost all that of Christian charity, and 
by learning all the varied facilities of money- 
making, they often acquire a considerable es- 
tate. To such parents, the spiritual world is 
a mere blank ; its hopes they cannot cherish, 
of its joys they cannot partake, of its duties 
tWey cannot realize the obligation. Their 



65 

treasure is here ; and the only salvation for 
which they really pant, is an uninterrupted 
course of worldly prosperity. In such families, 
the wife is a mere drudge, a sort of upper ser- 
vant, a necessary appendage. Commonly she 
is herself governed by the ruling passion of her 
husband — the love of the world ; — and, where 
she is not wholly subjected to its control, is, as 
to any moral' influence she is able to exert 
over the family, an absolute cypher. The re- 
ligion of such parents is merely external. They 
know and carefully observe all its rites and 
ceremonies, public and private ; are acquainted 
with its forms of phraseology ; and, when the 
ruling passion does not interfere, maintain a 
general decency of deportment. But it is a re- 
ligion, which does not prevent them from indulg- 
ing ravenous desires after property, from ex- 
hibiting a disgusting meanness and niggardli- 
ness in all the intercourse of life, from taking 
every advantage of the simple and unwary, from 

making hard and dishonest bargains, from cheat- 
6* 



66 

ing according to law, or from oppressing the 
poor and the powerless. As to any covenant 
between them and God, it is in the nature of 
the case impossible. Usually, they make no 
attempt to offer their children to God, except 
in the external act of baptism. If, however, 
natural affection does at any time resume its 
ascendancy, and restrain for a while the do- 
minion of the ruling passion ; its influence is 
merely spasmodic and momentary, and the of- 
fering which it prompts is insincere and heart- 
less. Their family government is commonly 
strict and thorough, often severe and arbitrary, 
and always absolute. It is the result of mere 
selfishness, enjoins habits of the most constant 
industry and the most rigid economy, and se- 
cures exact obedience — the forced obedience • 
of a slave, however, rather than the willing 
obedience of a child — to parental authority ; 
but at the same time excites no respect, and 
inspires no affection. Their instruction of 
their children is of the same character. The 



67 

truths, which have no practical influence over 
their own hearts, exert little or none over those 
of their children. If possessed of ordinary 
discernment, they cannot fail to discover the 
prominent trait of their parents' character, the 
prevailing bent of their minds, or to perceive 
the palpable inconsistency between their whole 
conduct and the instruction which they com- 
municate. Through the Bible, the catechism 
and the family altar, their minds are indeed 
brought into frequent contact with religion ; 
but it is with a religion, which is to maintain a 
profession, and which grows out of worldliness 
of mind. Hence they habitually regard its ob- 
servances as mere forms and ceremonies, de- 
signed, not to sanctify the heart and control 
the life, but to sustain the reputation and pro- 
mote the worldly prosperity ; and as to the 
reality of the religion of the heart, as to the 
existence of the faith which purifies, of the hope 
which elevates, and of the love which trans- 
forms, they grow up absolute infidels. 



The third class consists of individuals, whose 
predominant feature is ambition. Cut off by 
their profession from the hopes of political 
power and preferment, they console themselves 
for the loss, by an unceasing and inordinate 
pursuit of ecclesiastical distinction and influ- 
ence. To attain this darling object is the 
chief end, the main business of life ; and, in or- 
der to secure it, they adopt the appropriate 
measures, and speedily assume the identical 
character, of the demagogue. To profess but 
not to feel, to be smooth but not sincere, to 
flatter the weak and the vain, to sow jealousy 
and discord among brethren, to advocate one 
set of principles and attack another for selfish 
and party purposes? to say one thing and mean 
another, to deceive an opponent, to promise 
without intending to perform, to circulate se- 
cret slanders respecting a rival, to lead in the 
caucus and the cabal, to advance and retreat, 
to plot and counterplot, to mine and counter, 
mine, to court one party while professing to 



69 

belong to another, to change sides as interest 
prompts, to defend those principles and mea- 
sures which lately were opposed, and to oppose 
those which were lately defended : — are re- 
garded merely as necessary steps to the end in 
view, and are taken, habitually, with no sa- 
crifice of feeling or of conscience. The indi- 
vidual who pursues such a course, becomes 
soon, and by his own consent, a false and hollow- 
hearted man, a mere partizan, an intriguer and 
a Jesuit. To carry his object, there is no in- 
trigue in which he will not engage, no mean- 
ness to which he will not stoop, no deception 
which he will not practise, no degradation to 
which he will not descend. By persevering in 
this course, he forfeits confidence and charac- 
ter, is rejected by all parties, disowned by 
honest and upright men, and left to stand 
isolated and alone. 

It cannot be wondered at that the children 
of such a parent should never be really offered 
to God. Between Him " who requireth truth 



70 

in the inward parts," and himself, there can be 
no concord, no covenant. The insincerity of 
his more public life characterises the govern- 
ment of his family, and is visible at the fire- 
side. It gives its peculiar cast to his prayers 
and instructions, and wholly prevents their 
efficacy. No matter how evangelical the truths 
which he communicates, or the duties which he 
enjoins, or how apparently solemn and fervent 
the prayers which he offers ; they will prove 
too thin a veil, to hide the want of conscien- 
tious integrity. In that religion, which does 
not result in sincerity and honesty, even child- 
ren of common discernment will not believe. 
Thus he leads his family, almost necessa- 
rily, to doubt the reality of all religion, and 
prepares them for the worst kind of infidelity. 
From such an education and such an example, 
none but the most disastrous results can be ex- 
pected. 

The fourth class consists of those, whose 
wives have no higher ambition than to be re- 



71 

garded as women of fashion. That the wife of 
a man in such a station should have good man- 
ners and easy address, a correct taste in 
dress and furniture, in the arrangements of her 
house and her style of living, is indispensable, 
if she is to be fitted for a sphere of extensive 
usefulness : and if, in addition to all this, she is 
accomplished, graceful, and even elegant, it is 
all the better ; if she has good sense, and piety 
enough, habitually to regard these things as of 
no value, compared with " the weightier mat- 
ters" — conscience, duty and salvation. But 
unfortunately the individual in question sees 
more beauty in the casket than in the diamond, 
attaches a higher value to the form than to 
the substance, and is more desirous to be ele- 
gant than pure, graceful than excellent, and 
accomplished in the view of men than lovely in 
the sight of God, To associate with the wealthy 
and the fashionable, to indulge in a chas- 
tened gaiety and dissipation, and to be admired 
as far as she is known, — these are her ** trea- 



72 

sure ;" and " where her treasure is, there her 
heart is also." When she becomes a mother, 
she has a real, and it may be a strong, mater- 
nal affection for her offspring, so far as it is 
an instinct of her sex. But unhappily her chief 
good is found in " the things that are seen," and 
she finds no enjoyment in " those that are 
unseen;" and though her judgment admits that 
the one are " temporal," and the other " eter- 
nal," yet her feelings cannot allow that the 
former are only unsatisfying and worthless, or 
that the latter are truly substantial and excel, 
lent. She has no faith to lift her to a better world, 
no eye to survey its glories, no ear for the me- 
lody of its praise, no heart to relish its exalted 
pleasures, and no assurance that it shall be her 
everlasting home. Confining all her views as 
to her own happiness, to the present world, she 
can look no higher for that of her child. 
Of prayer, she makes use of the words and 
forms, but knows nothing of the substance. 



73 

To be with God, to see him face to face in all 
his greatness and goodness and grace, to con-i 
verse with him, as a man converses with his 
friend, respecting all her wants and her sins, 
her joys and her sorrows, demands a state of 
mind, of which she can form no conception. 
Far less can she conceive of that nearer and 
more intimate communion, in which the soul, 
being filled with holy submission and love and 
joy, and resting firmly on his promise as on 
an everlasting rock, places a new-bom child in 
his arms, gives it away wholly to Him, " in a 
covenant never to be forgotten," sees it sprin- 
kled with the blood of sprinkling, and beholds 
This seal impressed upon its forehead, — ^' the 

LORD KNO^aiteH THEM THAT ARE HIS," 

If her husband goes before the throne, him- 
self, to make the offering, he is conscious that ho 
stands there alone, and that, if he enters into the 
covenant, *« to train up the child in the way it 
should go," its mother, instead of cheerfully tak- 
ing it by th e hand in its infancy and child- 



74 

hood, and daily leading it forward and upward, 
will regularly counteract its progress, and, by 
the fatal influence of her example, will allure 
it into " the broad road, which leads down to 
the chambers of death." The government 
and instruction of her children have their ori- 
gin in the same worldliness of mind, and 
are accommodated to the rules and habits 
of fashionable life. As far as decency will 
permit, they are entrusted at first to the 
nursery-maid, then to the governess, and ulti- 
mately to the instructor. As to her own in- 
tercourse with them, she may indeed teach them 
to say their prayers and to say the catechism ; 
still « God is not in all her thoughts." The 
lesson, which she teaches them ^st and last 
and always, — the lesson, which in^des all that 
she does teach them, by her feelings and exam- 
ple, and which they learn so thoroughly and 
radically that it moulds and regulates their 
whole moral nature — is, to regard a connection 
with the fashionable world as the amount of 



75 

all good; and to look upon the fortune, the 
house, the furniture, the dress, the equipage, the 
manners, the accomplishments and the style of 
living, which are the necessary means of main- 
taining this connection, as the objects, which 
are to be loved and sought after, " with all the 
heart and soul and mind and strength," Who 
can wonder, that the children pf such a mother 
live without God and without Christ, and die 
without hope ; and who, from the fearful re- 
sults often witnessed in the families of these 
four classes, will dare to impugn the faithful- 
ness of Christ ? 

Here, too, we may discover the reason, why 
some of the children of really pious parents are 
saved, and others are lost ; and why some of 
them are converted at a much earlier age than 
others. 

The attention, which the same parents pay 
to the salvation of their different children, and 
the interest which they feel in it, are widely 
different. The piety of Christians is not equa- 



76 

ble. Very different degrees of grace are in 
exercise at different times. There are periods, 
in which the value of the soul is strongly 
and practically realized ; there are other pe- 
riods, when this subject makes but a faint 
impression ; and others still, when it is chief- 
ly or wholly forgotten. If a Christian pa- 
rent, at the birth and during the infancy of a 
child, is sunk in spiritual sloth, and mainly con- 
fines his views to the present life ; he will not, 
during that period, secure for it a heavenly in- 
heritance. If, on the contrary, his faith is 
then strong, and his piety flourishing ; he will 
have honourable views of the faithfulness of 
God, and, with the confidence of a son asking 
of his father what he knows him to be wiUing 
to bestow, he will go to the throne of grace, and 
beholding Him who sitteth thereon, will there 
receive for his child the blessing of salvation. 
We are also led to exhort those of our read- 
ers, who have young and rising families, and- 
those, who have just entered on the marriage 



77 

state, to the faithful performance of the duty, 
here enjoined on them by Christ. 

Begin to perform it early. Let the com- 
mencement of life in the child be the com- 
mencement of such a performance. At the 
birth of a child, every parent should indulge re- 
flections like the following : " The Lord Jesus 
Christ, who created this child, and then gave 
it to me, now says to me, * Suffer this little 
child to come unto me, and forbid it not : for 
of such is the kingdom of heaven.' He would 
not, he could not, have said this, if he had not 
been willing to receive it. His encourage- 
ments and promises are all sincere, and mean 
all that they profess. He has not told me, he 
could not tell me, * to seek his face in vain.' 
There is nothing in the heart of Christ, which 
could incline him first to bid me to bring this 
child to him, while a little child, and then to re- 
fuse to receive it, and to bless it. Such conduct 
would be dishonourable in a man like myself; and 

I cannot injure Him who died for it, by so un- 

7* 



,78 

generous and unworthy a supposition. When 
he tells me to bring this little child to him for 
his blessing, he promises his blessing to it, if I 
will bring it, I cannot harbour a doubt whether 
this promise will be fulfilled, I will take my 
infant child, therefore, and, in the exercise of 
a full and generous confidence in the truth and 
tenderness of Christ, will lay it in his arms, 
and give it away to him, soul and body, know- 
ing that he will impart to it the grace of life." 
Such, Reader, is your duty. I know well it 
is a duty, which cannot be performed by ordi- 
nary Christians. It demands strong faith and 
eminent holiness ; and that faith and holiness 
in vigourous exercise, with regard to this pecu- 
liar duty. It requires in a mother the faith and 
the feelings of Hannah, when she gave up Sam- 
uel at Shiloh. It requires her to feel the pangs 
of a second birth for the soul of her child. Let 
me then ea^^nestly exhort you to go to Christ 
with your little children, and to let Him see in 
your minds a full and joyful assurance, that he 



79 

will then and there bestow upon them the bless- 
ing of his grace. 

Here, likewise, we learn, how honourable and 
delightful is the office of a Christian parent, as 
appointed by God. 

If a powerful Monarch were to place one of 
his children under your care, to fashion his 
manners, to inform his mind, to mould his cha- 
racter, to qualify him for his high office, and to 
fit him for the exalted sphere in which he is to 
move ; how high would be the proof of his con- 
fidence ! how great the honour and the privilege 
thus conferred ! how rich the reward, which 
fidelity would secure ! 

Every faithful Christian parent has a still 
higher privilege and honour. He has a son or 
a daughter of the Lord Almighty entrusted 
to his care, living in his house, placed there to 
be educated for heaven, to acquire the man- 
ners, th€ knowledge and the character, which 
will qualify it for the society of saints and an- 
gels, and fit it to reign with Christ forever and 



80 

ever. How amazing the confidence, which 
God thus places in Christian parents ! How 
wonderful the honour and the privilege, which 
he thus confers ! How " far more exceeding 
and eternal" the weight of that reward, which 
faithfulness will ensure ! If such a Monarch 
should thus entrust his son to you, would you 
not feel yourself constrained to peculiar and 
unceasing faithfulness and care ? O how great, 
then, the fidelity, which you ought to discover, 
in educating one, who is " an heir of God, and 
a joint-heir with Jesus Christ?" 

Here, finally, we are led to reflect, How de- 
lightful will be the meeting of good men, and 
their children and descendants, in heaven. 

It is the appointment of God, that piety shall 
be transmitted from generation to generation. 
He calls himself, *' The God, who has mercy on 
thousands of generations of them that love him, 
and keep his commandments." This appoint- 
ment is extensively fulfilled. Considering the 
imperfect piety of good men, the promise of 



81 

God to be the God of their seed has been won- 
derfully verified. Many Christians now on 
earth can look back on a long line of pious an- 
cestors. Every such Christian will remember, 
with delight and gratitude, that he is indebted 
for his salvation to the prayers, the labours and 
the tears, of each one of these, as truly as to 
those of his own immediate parents. Some 
holy man, some pious woman, whose memory 
Time has forgotten, began the train of piety ; 
and it has been continued in one unbroken suc- 
cession to the present hour. Every one of 
these ancestors laid firm hold of the promise, 
" I will be a God to thee, and to thy seed after 
thee, throughout all generations ;" and took 
eflfectual care, in all the ways of God's appoint- 
ment, to transmit blessings on his descendants. 
The Christian will reflect with pleasure, that 
all of them have already rejoiced over his con- 
version ; giving God the praise for his cove- 
nant faithfulness, when the tidings of it were 
announced on high. Such a Christian has 



82 

many friends and relatives in heaven. They 
are those, from whom he claims his second 
birth ; those, from whom he derives his immortal 
life. When he drops his covering of clay, and 
joins their number ; they will rejoice over him 
with a. joy, which none hut he who feels it can con^ 
ceive. Christian parents, do you not intend to 
feel this joy, when your children shall arrive in 
heaven ? 



THE END. 



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